Tricksters around the World. | INFJ Forum

Tricksters around the World.

Remy Z

Regular Poster
Nov 12, 2017
58
135
56
MBTI
Infj
My favorite Trickster is Tsisdu or rabbit. He's Cherokee. He's seldom cruel, always curious, onry, and when pushed fierce. If you want to read more about Tsisdu, look up books by Deborah L. Duvall. The art is great too. My favorite is how Rabbit lost his tail.
 
Myth Hunters by Christopher Golden is a pretty cool trilogy.
It's fantasy fiction, but it incorporates many myths and monsters from around the globe.
The three books are:
The Myth Hunters.
The Borderkind.
The Lost Ones.
 
giphy.gif

Most of the Native American tribes have stories about coyote. To some he's evil. To others he can be good and evil.
 
(just want to say love this thread!)
Acd, tell us about Bab Yaga! Sense she's how this thread started!
Acd and I had a discussion in my Migraines thread so I started this thread to, hopefully, expand the discussion.
Any and all are invited to tell us about your favorite folklore Trickster.
 
Jezda or Jezi Baba (Polish) Baba Yaga (Russian) - Wild woman goddess, the dark lady and mistress of magic. She is also seen as a forest spirit that leads hosts of spirits. Jezi Baba is portrayed as a witch who flies through the air in a mortar using the pestle as a rudder sweeping away the tracks behind her with a broom made out of human hair. She lives in a house that revolves around by means of three pairs of chicken legs that dance. Her fence outside was made with human bones that had skulls atop of them. The keyhole to her front door was a mouth filled with sharp teeth. She aids those who are pure of heart; and eats the souls of those that were not visiting her prepared and clean of spirit. She is said to be the Guardian Spirit of the fountain of the water of life. If she doesn't kill you, she can help you with advice and magical gifts.
http://www.polishtoledo.com/pagan/
^^^
That is the description @the sent me awhile ago which led to my interest in the figure.

The Wiki
 
Last edited:
The word "coyote" was originally a Spanish corruption of the Nahuatl (Aztec) word for the animal, coyotl. Coyote mythlore is one of the most popular among Native American people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote_(mythology)

latest
 
My FIL who's now passed was 1/2 Native American. His beliefs spoke of Raven as the Trickster of Change responsible for bringing light, in all forms, into the world.

scan0010_002.jpg

"Raven was not thought of as a god. He was thought of as the transformer, the trickster. He was the being that changed things—sometimes quite by accident, sometimes on purpose."
—Christian White, Haida artist

In northern Northwest Coast mythology, Raven is the powerful figure who transforms the world. Stories tell how Raven created the land, released the people from a cockle shell, and brought them fire. Raven stole the light and brought it out to light up the world. Yet Raven is a trickster—often selfish, hungry, and mischievous. He changes the world only by cleverly deceiving others in his never-ending quest for food.

In Northwest Coast art, ravens signify the many adventures of Raven in the early days of the world. Those who know the stories cannot help being reminded of the trickster whenever they see a raven.

Myths explain the natural world, describe the origin of a clan or tell how the clan acquired rights to perform a particular ceremony. This excerpt is from a Raven story published by Haida artist Bill Reid in 1984.

How Raven Brought Light to the World
"At that time the whole world was dark. Inky, pitchy, all-consuming dark, blacker than a thousand stormy winter midnights, blacker than anything anywhere has been since."

"The reason for all this blackness has to do with the old man in the house by the river, who had a box, which contained a box, which contained a box, which contained an infinite number of boxes, each nestled in a box slightly larger than itself until finally there was a box so small all it could contain was all the light in the universe."

In the story, the old man hides the light because he's afraid to see whether or not his daughter is ugly. In a ploy to steal the light, Raven shrinks himself to become a hemlock needle in a basket of drinking water so that the daughter swallows him. Soon Raven is reborn from her as a raven/human child. The old man accepts him as a grandson, and soon Raven begins begging that he open the boxes, one after another, each time pleading and crying until the old man yields.

When the old man finally opens the box containing the light, Raven grabs it and flies out of the house—causing light to spread throughout the world and revealing that the old man's daughter is as beautiful as the fronds of a hemlock tree.

As Raven flies away, Eagle sees him and tries to steal the light, causing Raven to drop some of it, which becomes the Moon and the stars.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven_Tales
 
Kitsune. From Wikipedia!
According to Yōkai folklore, all foxes have the ability to shape shift into human form.[1] While some folktales speak of kitsune employing this ability to trick others—as foxes in folklore often do—other stories portray them as faithful guardians, friends, lovers, and wives.

Foxes and human beings lived close together in ancient Japan; this companionship gave rise to legends about the creatures. Kitsune have become closely associated with Inari, a Shinto kami or spirit, and serve as its messengers. This role has reinforced the fox's supernatural significance. The more tails a kitsune has—they may have as many as nine—the older, wiser, and more powerful it is. Because of their potential power and influence, some people make offerings to them as to a deity.
YES! I figured out Cut and Past!
I'm not a complete moron after all!
And everyone else is like:flushed:! I been doing that sense I was 3!:sunglasses:
 
Banamapa, From Deviant Art. He's a cusser!
, all mythologies need a trickster god and that's the purpose that Bamapana serves in Aboriginal mythology. He is specifically a god among the Yolngu people of Northern Australia.

Now, it's not uncommon for tricksters to be rude and a tad (but usually more) obnoxious, but Bamapana seems to take first prize in most uncouth and undignified behavior. He is actually the god of cursing. And I don't mean "cursing" as in putting a spell on someone, I mean the cursing that would get you sent up to your room and grounded for a week when you were little. This god probably created the curse word that got you in trouble in the first place.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what Bamapana was like. One of his favorite activities was to create misunderstandings and then sit back and observe the chaos that unfolded from that situation. Unfortunately, there aren't any specific incidents that I can report back to you.

However, there is one event that marks Bamapana as such a very crude and improper god. Though common in many other pantheons, Bamapana had one incestuous experience. (And sorry, I have not been able to find the name of that relative.) Nowadays, incest is widely discriminated against, and it was back then with the Yolngu peoples. What the retribution for this act, if there was any, is unknown. Yet, it is always refreshing to come across a culture that is so disapproving of incest when it is so rampant throughout the rest of the pantheons worldwide.

In all honesty, there really isn't that much detail on this god. The main reason I would name is due to where the stories come from. There are so many god throughout Australia, and each Aboriginal tribe had different stories and gods. Obviously, it's easy to lose some in translation. I can't imagine how many gods from the really well-known mythologies were lost (Of the big three Norse, Greek, and Egyptian, it is most often speculated in Egyptian mythology.)

However, no matter how little there is about a particular god, that doesn't mean that we should ignore them. Who knows, maybe the name Bamapana will be the winning answer on a game show you're on one day. Or maybe you'll happen to run across this god, and if that's the case, then it's probably really good that we covered him.
 
The Haudenosaunee - commonly known as the Iroquois...
Dagwanoenyent
The spirit of the tornado, She is the daughter of the wind, and a malevolent witch. She can be slain, but even if She is burned to ashes, She will revivify at the time of the next storm. The only way of insuring Her subdual is to carefully separate Her ashes into three different containers, and keep those containers far from one another.
http://web.raex.com/~obsidian/HaudPan.html
 
In your link @Sandie33 I also found this-

Ganyajigowa Mud-Hen spirit, a trickster figure in much the same vein as coyote is to many Amerindian cultures. She gives names to many things at the beginning of time, and engages in many contests with other creatures, in which Her orenda proves superior to theirs. She is ultimately slain by a Gaasyendietha.
 
In your link @Sandie33 I also found this-

Ganyajigowa Mud-Hen spirit, a trickster figure in much the same vein as coyote is to many Amerindian cultures. She gives names to many things at the beginning of time, and engages in many contests with other creatures, in which Her orenda proves superior to theirs. She is ultimately slain by a Gaasyendietha.
;)
That's quite a link I think. It puts a lot of info in a little spot.

The Mohawk feared/revered shape-shifters to the extreme. There is a story here that my pal Dusty tells of being 'lost' in the Catskill mountians and the forest people helped him find his way out. After he asked a local about the people that helped him, because he wanted to be sure he'd experienced what he experienced, he said, the locals explained that they were the people of the forest, shape-shifters.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Free and Wyote
A lot of tribes have shape-shifters. Some see them as good, others see them as bad.
From what I've read, the Navaho see all humans who've become shape-shifters as evil witches. To them all witches are bad.
To become a shifter, you must kill a close relative then do a ceremony to attract coyote. Coyote makes a deal with them and grants them some powers. Nothing good comes from these deals!
Other Navahos will fear and hate them, and sometimes try to kill them if it's believed the shifter has hexed them or a loved one.